Haiphong incident: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox military conflict |
{{Infobox military conflict |
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| conflict = Haiphong Incident |
| conflict = Haiphong Incident |
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| image =LocationVietnamHaiPhong.png |
| image = LocationVietnamHaiPhong.png |
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| caption = '''Haiphong on a map''' |
| caption = '''Haiphong on a map''' |
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| date = {{start date|1946|11|23}} |
| date = {{start date|1946|11|23}} |
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| place = [[ |
| place = [[Haiphong]], [[French Indochina]] |
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| result |
| result = French victory |
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* First clash of events that would lead to the [[First Indochina War]] |
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| territory = French occupation of the city of Haiphong |
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| combatant1 = {{flagicon| |
| combatant1 = {{flagicon|French Fourth Republic}} [[French Fourth Republic|French Republic]] |
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| combatant2 = {{flagicon|North Vietnam|1945}} [[ |
| combatant2 = {{flagicon|North Vietnam|1945}} [[Việt Minh]] |
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| commander1 = Pierre-Louis |
| commander1 = {{flagicon|French Fourth Republic}} Pierre-Louis Debès |
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| commander2 = Unknown |
| commander2 = Unknown |
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| casualties1 = |
| casualties1 = 20 to 29 killed |
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| casualties2 |
| casualties2 = Unknown |
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| strength1 = 1 [[heavy cruiser]]<br>3 [[avisos]] |
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| strength2 = Unknown |
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| partof = the [[First Indochina War]] |
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| territory = French rule restored in Haiphong |
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| casualties3 = 2,000 to 6,000 Vietnamese people killed (overwhelmingly civilians),<ref name=":0" /><ref name="auto"/> 25,000 injured<ref>Young, Marilyn B., The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990, Harper Perennial, 1991, p.18.</ref> |
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{{Campaignbox First Indochina War}} |
{{Campaignbox First Indochina War}} |
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{{History of Hải Phòng}} |
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The ''Haiphong Incident'' occurred on November 23, 1946 when the French [[cruiser]] {{ship|French cruiser|Suffren||2}} bombarded the Vietnamese coastal city of [[Haiphong]] |
The '''Haiphong Incident''' or the '''Haiphong Massacre''' occurred on November 23, 1946, when the French [[cruiser]] {{ship|French cruiser|Suffren||2}} and several avisos<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vaïse|first=Maurice|title=L'Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946-1954): Adaptation ou inadaptation.|year=2000|pages=276}}</ref> bombarded the Vietnamese coastal city of [[Haiphong]], killing between 2,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese people.<ref name=":0">Stein Tonnesson: ''Vietnam 1946: How the War Began'' Berkeley, 2010, p. 122–125</ref><ref name="auto">Cirillo, Roger (2015). ''The Shape of Battles to Come''. Louisville: University Press of Kentucky. p. 187. {{ISBN|978-0813165752}}.</ref> The incident, also known as the Shelling of Haiphong, is thought of as the first armed clash in a series of events that would lead to the [[Battle of Hanoi (1946)|Battle of Hanoi]] on December 19, 1946, and with it the official outbreak of the [[First Indochina War]].<ref>"French Vietnam: A War of Illusions". ''Victorious Insurgencies: Four Rebellions That Shaped Our World''. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. 69–140. Web.</ref><ref name="auto1">Devillers, Philippe, and Jean Lacouture. ''End of a War: Indochina'', 1954. London: Pall Mall Press, 1969.</ref><ref>"Haiphong, Shelling of". ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History''. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Credo Reference. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.</ref> |
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==Background== |
==Background== |
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After [[French Indochina in World War II|World War II]], the future of the Vietnamese territory was in question. After being under years of French colonial rule followed by Japanese rule during the war, Vietnam began to seek independence.<ref>Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. |
After [[French Indochina in World War II|World War II]], the future of the Vietnamese territory was in question. After being under years of French colonial rule followed by Japanese rule during the war, Vietnam began to seek independence.<ref>Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 30–34.</ref> Specifically, the Japanese renounced French claims to the Vietnamese territory on March 9, 1945, officially declaring Vietnam independent over France and under the control of Emperor [[Bảo Đại]].<ref name="Oxford International Publishers">{{cite book|last1=Cooper|first1=Nicola|title=France in Indochina – Colonial Encounters|date=2001|publisher=Oxford International Publishers|location=New York|isbn=1859734812|page=179}}</ref> This was counteracted by a rebellion on September 2, 1945, when [[Ho Chi Minh]] and his guerilla army declared the official birth of the [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam]].<ref name="Oxford International Publishers"/> Ho Chi Minh became the leader of the [[Vietnamese Communist Party]], and demanded complete autonomy from Europe.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hammer|first1=Ellen|title=The Struggle for Indochina|date=1954|publisher=Stanford University Press|location=Stanford, California|pages=148–150}}</ref> |
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The French disregarded these claims of autonomy and quickly moved to resettle Vietnam as a member for the [[French Union]]. However, complete colonization was no longer an option due to power dynamics in the west and on March 6, 1946, after receiving pressure from the western allies, [[Jean Sainteny]], French Commissioner for Northern Indochina met with Ho Chi Minh in [[Hanoi]] and signed the [[Ho–Sainteny agreement]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Devillers|first1=Phillipe|last2=Lacouture|first2=Jean|title=End of a War, Indochina, 1954|date=1969|publisher=Pall Mall Pres|location=London|pages=8–9}}</ref> The agreement officially gave Vietnam independence as "a free state with its own government, parliament, army and finances, forming part of the [[Indochinese Federation]] and the [[French Union]]".<ref>Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 153</ref> Additionally, the treaty allowed for the French to have a military presence in Vietnam for the following five years.<ref>Roger Levy, ''L'Indochine et Ses Traites, 1946.'' Paris: Centre D'Études de Politiques Étrangère, 1947, pp. 46–48, citing ''Notes Documentaires et Études'', No. 548.</ref> |
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At the time of the signing, it was widely thought that Ho Chi Minh had given many concessions to the French. By allowing the continued presence of the French army, Ho Chi Minh allowed for a continuation of the French colonial control of the past.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=68}}</ref> The Communist newspaper ''[[Les Temps modernes]]'' criticized the signing of the deal, calling the agreement "the lamentable surrender of all our [Communists] ideological and political plans".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=233}}</ref> On the French side, [[Thierry d'Argenlieu]] illustrated French optimism regarding the treaty in a [[communiqué]] he wrote to the Parisian government: "On the French level, the armed forces are assured of a friendly reception and we are pre-empting any reproach for opening hostilities ... We are fully safeguarding French economic and cultural interests now and for the future."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=71}}</ref> Vietnamese worries in regards to the agreement soon came to fruition as France began to exert the same colonial authority it had formally denounced in the treaty. France created a virtual naval blockade of Haiphong by continuing to have a strong naval presence in the [[Gulf of Tonkin]].<ref name="auto2">Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 182.</ref> That led the Vietnamese to reach out for peace talks to curb French influence in the region. These peace talks came in the form of the [[Fontainebleau Agreements]], which occurred at the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]] and were led by [[Phạm Văn Đồng]] for the Vietnamese and Max André on the side of the French, beginning on July 6, 1946.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=72}}</ref><ref name="auto3">Lockhart, Bruce McFarland, and William J. Duiker. ''Historical Dictionary of Vietnam''. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2006. Print.</ref> The conference at the palace was held to discuss the provisions of the Ho-Sainteny Agreement.<ref name="auto3"/> At the conference, the French refused to revise the original treaty in any way. The Vietnamese leadership, led by Ho Chi Minh, settled to sign a [[modus vivendi]], postponing talks to a later date.<ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Sagar|first1=D. J.|title=Major Political Events in Indo-China 1945–1990|date=1991|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|pages=4–8}}</ref> These talks never occurred due to the outbreak of violence in November. |
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==The Incident== |
==The Incident== |
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[[File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Dumont d'Urville komt a d steiger TMnr 60033430.jpg|thumb|The ''[[French aviso Dumont d'Urville|Dumont d'Urville]]'' in [[Dutch East Indies]], 1930-1936]] |
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[[File:Croiseur_Suffren.jpg|right|thumbnail|The French cruiser ''Suffren'' in [[Toulon]], 21 September 1945.]] |
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On the morning of November 20, 1946, a French patrol ship seized a Chinese [[Junk (ship)|junk]] attempting to bring [[contraband]] into Haiphong.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=79}}</ref> While seemingly routine, the seizure of the ship was the beginning of a chain of unfortunate events. Vietnamese soldiers reacted to the seizure by firing on the French ship from the shore, killing 23 soldiers.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="The Haiphong incident">{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=The Haiphong incident |url=https://www.worldhistory.biz/world-war-i/16465-the-haiphong-incident.html |website=World History}}</ref> Armed clashes immediately broke out on land between French and Vietnamese nationalists, with a French burial party being ambushed, losing six more men.<ref name="auto2"/><ref name="The Haiphong incident"/> The French immediately worked to dissipate the conflict and stopped the outbreak by agreeing to respect Vietnamese sovereignty in Haiphong on November 22, 1946.<ref name="auto2"/> |
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⚫ | This, however, was only the beginning of the incident. Once the news of the skirmish came to [[Admiral d'Argenlieu]] in Paris, he sent a cable to [[Jean Étienne Valluy]], commander of French forces in Indochina, ordering him to use force against the Vietnamese in Haiphong. Valluy, in turn, sent an order to Colonel Debès, commander of the French troops at Haiphong, stating, "It appears clear that we are up against premeditated aggressions carefully staged by the Vietnamese regular army ... The moment has come to give a severe lesson to those who have treacherously attacked you. Use all the means at your disposal to make yourself complete master of Haiphong."<ref>Quoted in Institut franco-suisse d'Études coloniales, ''France et Viet-Nam'', p. 42</ref><ref name="auto4">Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 183.</ref> Debès then issued an ultimatum to the Vietnamese in Haiphong demanding a withdrawal from the French section and Chinese sections of the city, including the port.<ref name="auto4"/> In the order, Debès invoked the Franco-Chinese agreement of February 28, 1946, as justification for demanding the Vietnamese evacuation of parts of the city.<ref name="auto4"/> Debès argued that the treaty gave France protective rights over the Chinese in Vietnam and thus gave them jurisdiction to engage in combat.<ref name="auto5">Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 185.</ref> |
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After the Vietnamese failed to evacuate in time, the French began a bombardment of the Vietnamese sections of the city, using three French [[aviso]]s:<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [[Maurice Vaïsse]], ''L'Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946-1954) : Adaptation ou inadaptation'', 2000, {{p.|276}}</ref> ''Chevreuil'' ([[Chamois-class minesweeping sloop]]),<ref>[https://www.histoiredumonde.net/Bombardement-de-haiphong.html Bombardement de haiphong]</ref> ''[[French aviso Savorgnan de Brazza|Savorgnan de Brazza]]'' and ''[[French aviso Dumont d'Urville|Dumont d'Urville]]''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=92swPSNgnycC&dq=Bombardement+de+Ha%C3%AFphong+le+23+novembre+1946+aviso&pg=PA299 ''La Terre du Dragon'', tome 1]</ref> |
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The role of the cruiser ''[[French cruiser Suffren|Suffren]]'' in the bombardment is controversial, as some versions of events suggest the ship participated in the shelling and others claim it arrived after the action had already been carried out.<ref name="HooperAFM">{{cite book |last1=Hooper |first1=Edwin Bickford |last2=Allard |first2=Dean C. |last3=Fitzgerald |first3=Oscar P. |last4=Marolda |first4=Edward J. |title=The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict: The setting of the stage to 1959 |date=1977 |publisher=Naval History Division |page=120 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obK6xVpQkeEC&pg=PA120 |access-date=11 December 2020}}</ref> By November 28, 1946, Colonel Debès had taken complete control over the town.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dalloz|first1=Jacques|last2=Bacon|first2=Josephine|title=The War in Indo-China 1945–1954|date=1990|publisher=Barnes and Noble Ltd.|location=Dublin|isbn=0-7171-1723-5|page=80}}</ref> |
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While reports about the total number of casualties from the bombardment range widely from upwards of twenty thousand to less than one hundred.<ref name="Haiphong 2011">"Haiphong, Shelling of". ''Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History''. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Credo Reference. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.</ref> Today the most commonly cited estimate is around 6,000 deaths as reported by the French sociologist [[Paul Mus]].<ref name="Haiphong 2011"/> The historian [[Georgette Elgey]] considers this estimate to be perhaps excessive as it represents 10% of the city's population, but nevertheless describes the incident as by far the deadliest of the war.<ref>Georgette Elgey, ''Histoire de la IVe République : la République des illusions (1945-1951)'', Fayard, 2014.</ref> |
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The Viet Minh spread an estimate of 10,000 to 20,000 killed. French intelligence services also secretly spread this figure with intention of showing that the communist Vietnamese state could not protect its population from the French military. In a letter from December 1946, Ho Chi Minh reported around 3,000 killed during the incident in the fighting. General Valluy estimated that there were 300 killed. The US consul reported around 2,000 killed.<ref name=":0" /> |
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In return, French forces lost 20 to 29 men killed in Hai Phong from November 20 to 23.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Political Science Department|first=University of Arkansas|title=French Indochina/Vietnam (1941-1954)|url=https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/asiapacific-region/french-indochinavietnam-1941-1954/}}</ref> |
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=== Attempted reconciliation === |
=== Attempted reconciliation === |
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Immediately after the shelling, the French government sought peace. All violence was ended by the afternoon of November 22 and tensions seemed to have been alleviated. This was not the case. Less than two weeks after the shelling, after receiving pressure from Paris to "teach the Vietnamese a lesson" General Morlière ordered a complete Vietnamese withdrawal from the city, demanding all Viet Minh military elements to be evacuated from Haiphong.<ref name="Haiphong 2011"/><ref name="auto6">Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 184.</ref> By early December 1946, Haiphong was under complete French military occupation.<ref name="auto5"/> |
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The aggressive actions of the French regarding the occupation of Haiphong made it clear in the eyes of the Viet Minh that the French intended on maintaining a colonial presence in Vietnam.<ref>''Le Monde'', December 10, 1946</ref><ref name="auto7">Modelski, George. "The Viet Minh Complex". ''Communism and Revolution: The Strategic Uses of Political Violence''. Ed. Cyril E. Black and Thomas P. Thornton. Princeton University Press, 1964. 185–214. Web.</ref> The threat of the French establishing a separate southern state in Vietnam by besieging the city of [[Hanoi]] became a top priority for the Viet Minh to counteract.<ref name="auto7"/> |
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On December 2, as a final effort to maintain good relations between the two nations, French Commissioner Sainteny (of the [[Ho–Sainteny agreement]]) visited Hanoi to reach an agreement for a ceasefire. This proved unsuccessful as the French insistence on maintaining complete military control of Haiphong stalled all negotiations.<ref name="auto6"/> The December 16 election of the socialist [[Léon Blum]] as the [[Premier of France]] offered hope to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese, as the French socialists had a much more tolerant policy towards Vietnamese independence.<ref name="auto1"/> That hope proved to be misplaced, as by the time Blum came into office violence between the Vietnamese and French was already widespread. |
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=== The onset of war === |
=== The onset of war === |
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As relations between France and Vietnam continued to worsen Ho Chi Minh issued a plea for peace between the two nations on December 12, stating, "Neither France nor Viet Nam can afford the luxury of a bloody war |
As relations between France and Vietnam continued to worsen, Ho Chi Minh issued a plea for peace between the two nations on December 12, stating, "Neither France nor Viet Nam can afford the luxury of a bloody war".<ref name="auto8">Hammer, Ellen (1954). ''The Struggle for Indochina''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 187.</ref> Ho, however, was not completely supported in his call for peace. [[Võ Nguyên Giáp]], leader of the Vietnamese army was convinced that open confrontation was inevitable. Giap was certain that the takeover of Haiphong signaled France's intent to attack and take over Hanoi.<ref>Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). ''The War in Indo-China 1945–1954''. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 80. {{ISBN|0-7171-1723-5}}.</ref> This led to Giap focusing on arming the Hanoi militias in preparation for an attack.<ref>Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). ''The War in Indo-China 1945–1954''. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 81. {{ISBN|0-7171-1723-5}}.</ref> The Vietnamese media reflected the concerns of General Giap. In an article on December 10, 1946, a Hanoi newspaper stated, "The grave hour has arrived. The Hanoi Committee of the [[Việt Minh|Việt Minh Front]] calls on the people to be calm, to be united, and to be ready to rise when the government gives the order [to rebel against the French]."<ref name="auto5"/> The Vietnamese people, in turn, reacted to the plea to prepare, building barricades in the streets of Hanoi and engaging in armed skirmishes with [[French legionnaire]]s.<ref>Duiker, William J. ''The American Historical Review'' 94.4 (1989): 1156–1157. Web</ref> |
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The final ultimatum to the Vietnamese was issued on December 19, when General Morlière ordered the leading Viet Minh militia, Tu Ve ("self-defence"), to completely disarm.<ref name="auto8"/> That night, all electricity was turned off in Hanoi and the city was left in complete darkness.<ref>Smith, R. B. "Towards a History of Vietnam, 1941–75". ''Modern Asian Studies'' 16.2 (1982): 311–333. Web</ref> The Vietnamese (specifically the Tu Ve militia) attacked the French from within Hanoi with machine guns, artillery, and mortars.<ref>Zhai, Qiang. ''Contemporary Southeast Asia'' 32.2 (2010): 305–306. Web</ref> Thousands of French soldiers and Vietnamese civilians lost their lives.<ref name="auto1"/> The French reacted by storming Hanoi the following day, forcing the Vietnamese government to take refuge outside of the city.<ref>Devillers, Phillipe; Lacouture, Jean (1969). ''End of a War, Indochina'', 1954. London: Pall Mall Pres. p. 10.</ref> Ho Chi Minh himself was forced to flee Hanoi for a more remote mountainous area.<ref name="auto"/> The attack can be characterized as a preemptive strike against the French after the overtaking of Haiphong endangered Vietnamese claims to Hanoi and all of Vietnam. The uprising in Hanoi escalated the aggression between the French and Viet Minh into the [[First Indochina War]]. |
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== References == |
== References == |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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* {{C|First Indochina War|First Indochina War topics}} |
* {{C|First Indochina War|First Indochina War topics}} |
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* [[Battle of Hanoi]] |
* [[Battle of Hanoi (1946)]] |
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* {{C|French Indochina}} |
* {{C|French Indochina}} |
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* [[ |
* [[France–Vietnam relations]] |
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{{French Indochina}} |
{{French Indochina}} |
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[[Category:First Indochina War |
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[[Category:Conflicts in 1946]] |
[[Category:Conflicts in 1946]] |
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[[Category:French |
[[Category:Tonkin (French protectorate)]] |
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[[Category:Haiphong]] |
[[Category:History of Haiphong]] |
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[[Category:Invasions of Vietnam]] |
[[Category:Invasions of Vietnam]] |
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[[Category:1946 in Vietnam]] |
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[[Category:Vietnamese independence movement]] |
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[[Category:Insurgencies in Asia]] |
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[[Category:Resistance to the French colonial empire]] |
[[Category:Resistance to the French colonial empire]] |
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Latest revision as of 04:57, 17 November 2024
Haiphong Incident | |||||||||
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Part of the First Indochina War | |||||||||
Haiphong on a map | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
French Republic | Việt Minh | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Pierre-Louis Debès | Unknown | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
1 heavy cruiser 3 avisos | Unknown | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
20 to 29 killed | Unknown | ||||||||
2,000 to 6,000 Vietnamese people killed (overwhelmingly civilians),[1][2] 25,000 injured[3] |
History of Haiphong |
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Vietnam portal |
The Haiphong Incident or the Haiphong Massacre occurred on November 23, 1946, when the French cruiser Suffren and several avisos[4] bombarded the Vietnamese coastal city of Haiphong, killing between 2,000 and 6,000 Vietnamese people.[1][2] The incident, also known as the Shelling of Haiphong, is thought of as the first armed clash in a series of events that would lead to the Battle of Hanoi on December 19, 1946, and with it the official outbreak of the First Indochina War.[5][6][7]
Background
[edit]After World War II, the future of the Vietnamese territory was in question. After being under years of French colonial rule followed by Japanese rule during the war, Vietnam began to seek independence.[8] Specifically, the Japanese renounced French claims to the Vietnamese territory on March 9, 1945, officially declaring Vietnam independent over France and under the control of Emperor Bảo Đại.[9] This was counteracted by a rebellion on September 2, 1945, when Ho Chi Minh and his guerilla army declared the official birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.[9] Ho Chi Minh became the leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party, and demanded complete autonomy from Europe.[10]
The French disregarded these claims of autonomy and quickly moved to resettle Vietnam as a member for the French Union. However, complete colonization was no longer an option due to power dynamics in the west and on March 6, 1946, after receiving pressure from the western allies, Jean Sainteny, French Commissioner for Northern Indochina met with Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi and signed the Ho–Sainteny agreement.[11] The agreement officially gave Vietnam independence as "a free state with its own government, parliament, army and finances, forming part of the Indochinese Federation and the French Union".[12] Additionally, the treaty allowed for the French to have a military presence in Vietnam for the following five years.[13]
At the time of the signing, it was widely thought that Ho Chi Minh had given many concessions to the French. By allowing the continued presence of the French army, Ho Chi Minh allowed for a continuation of the French colonial control of the past.[14] The Communist newspaper Les Temps modernes criticized the signing of the deal, calling the agreement "the lamentable surrender of all our [Communists] ideological and political plans".[15] On the French side, Thierry d'Argenlieu illustrated French optimism regarding the treaty in a communiqué he wrote to the Parisian government: "On the French level, the armed forces are assured of a friendly reception and we are pre-empting any reproach for opening hostilities ... We are fully safeguarding French economic and cultural interests now and for the future."[16] Vietnamese worries in regards to the agreement soon came to fruition as France began to exert the same colonial authority it had formally denounced in the treaty. France created a virtual naval blockade of Haiphong by continuing to have a strong naval presence in the Gulf of Tonkin.[17] That led the Vietnamese to reach out for peace talks to curb French influence in the region. These peace talks came in the form of the Fontainebleau Agreements, which occurred at the Palace of Fontainebleau and were led by Phạm Văn Đồng for the Vietnamese and Max André on the side of the French, beginning on July 6, 1946.[18][19] The conference at the palace was held to discuss the provisions of the Ho-Sainteny Agreement.[19] At the conference, the French refused to revise the original treaty in any way. The Vietnamese leadership, led by Ho Chi Minh, settled to sign a modus vivendi, postponing talks to a later date.[19][20] These talks never occurred due to the outbreak of violence in November.
The Incident
[edit]On the morning of November 20, 1946, a French patrol ship seized a Chinese junk attempting to bring contraband into Haiphong.[21] While seemingly routine, the seizure of the ship was the beginning of a chain of unfortunate events. Vietnamese soldiers reacted to the seizure by firing on the French ship from the shore, killing 23 soldiers.[17][22] Armed clashes immediately broke out on land between French and Vietnamese nationalists, with a French burial party being ambushed, losing six more men.[17][22] The French immediately worked to dissipate the conflict and stopped the outbreak by agreeing to respect Vietnamese sovereignty in Haiphong on November 22, 1946.[17]
This, however, was only the beginning of the incident. Once the news of the skirmish came to Admiral d'Argenlieu in Paris, he sent a cable to Jean Étienne Valluy, commander of French forces in Indochina, ordering him to use force against the Vietnamese in Haiphong. Valluy, in turn, sent an order to Colonel Debès, commander of the French troops at Haiphong, stating, "It appears clear that we are up against premeditated aggressions carefully staged by the Vietnamese regular army ... The moment has come to give a severe lesson to those who have treacherously attacked you. Use all the means at your disposal to make yourself complete master of Haiphong."[23][24] Debès then issued an ultimatum to the Vietnamese in Haiphong demanding a withdrawal from the French section and Chinese sections of the city, including the port.[24] In the order, Debès invoked the Franco-Chinese agreement of February 28, 1946, as justification for demanding the Vietnamese evacuation of parts of the city.[24] Debès argued that the treaty gave France protective rights over the Chinese in Vietnam and thus gave them jurisdiction to engage in combat.[25]
After the Vietnamese failed to evacuate in time, the French began a bombardment of the Vietnamese sections of the city, using three French avisos:[26] Chevreuil (Chamois-class minesweeping sloop),[27] Savorgnan de Brazza and Dumont d'Urville.[28]
The role of the cruiser Suffren in the bombardment is controversial, as some versions of events suggest the ship participated in the shelling and others claim it arrived after the action had already been carried out.[29] By November 28, 1946, Colonel Debès had taken complete control over the town.[30]
While reports about the total number of casualties from the bombardment range widely from upwards of twenty thousand to less than one hundred.[31] Today the most commonly cited estimate is around 6,000 deaths as reported by the French sociologist Paul Mus.[31] The historian Georgette Elgey considers this estimate to be perhaps excessive as it represents 10% of the city's population, but nevertheless describes the incident as by far the deadliest of the war.[32]
The Viet Minh spread an estimate of 10,000 to 20,000 killed. French intelligence services also secretly spread this figure with intention of showing that the communist Vietnamese state could not protect its population from the French military. In a letter from December 1946, Ho Chi Minh reported around 3,000 killed during the incident in the fighting. General Valluy estimated that there were 300 killed. The US consul reported around 2,000 killed.[1]
In return, French forces lost 20 to 29 men killed in Hai Phong from November 20 to 23.[33]
Aftermath
[edit]Attempted reconciliation
[edit]Immediately after the shelling, the French government sought peace. All violence was ended by the afternoon of November 22 and tensions seemed to have been alleviated. This was not the case. Less than two weeks after the shelling, after receiving pressure from Paris to "teach the Vietnamese a lesson" General Morlière ordered a complete Vietnamese withdrawal from the city, demanding all Viet Minh military elements to be evacuated from Haiphong.[31][34] By early December 1946, Haiphong was under complete French military occupation.[25]
The aggressive actions of the French regarding the occupation of Haiphong made it clear in the eyes of the Viet Minh that the French intended on maintaining a colonial presence in Vietnam.[35][36] The threat of the French establishing a separate southern state in Vietnam by besieging the city of Hanoi became a top priority for the Viet Minh to counteract.[36]
On December 2, as a final effort to maintain good relations between the two nations, French Commissioner Sainteny (of the Ho–Sainteny agreement) visited Hanoi to reach an agreement for a ceasefire. This proved unsuccessful as the French insistence on maintaining complete military control of Haiphong stalled all negotiations.[34] The December 16 election of the socialist Léon Blum as the Premier of France offered hope to Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese, as the French socialists had a much more tolerant policy towards Vietnamese independence.[6] That hope proved to be misplaced, as by the time Blum came into office violence between the Vietnamese and French was already widespread.
The onset of war
[edit]As relations between France and Vietnam continued to worsen, Ho Chi Minh issued a plea for peace between the two nations on December 12, stating, "Neither France nor Viet Nam can afford the luxury of a bloody war".[37] Ho, however, was not completely supported in his call for peace. Võ Nguyên Giáp, leader of the Vietnamese army was convinced that open confrontation was inevitable. Giap was certain that the takeover of Haiphong signaled France's intent to attack and take over Hanoi.[38] This led to Giap focusing on arming the Hanoi militias in preparation for an attack.[39] The Vietnamese media reflected the concerns of General Giap. In an article on December 10, 1946, a Hanoi newspaper stated, "The grave hour has arrived. The Hanoi Committee of the Việt Minh Front calls on the people to be calm, to be united, and to be ready to rise when the government gives the order [to rebel against the French]."[25] The Vietnamese people, in turn, reacted to the plea to prepare, building barricades in the streets of Hanoi and engaging in armed skirmishes with French legionnaires.[40]
The final ultimatum to the Vietnamese was issued on December 19, when General Morlière ordered the leading Viet Minh militia, Tu Ve ("self-defence"), to completely disarm.[37] That night, all electricity was turned off in Hanoi and the city was left in complete darkness.[41] The Vietnamese (specifically the Tu Ve militia) attacked the French from within Hanoi with machine guns, artillery, and mortars.[42] Thousands of French soldiers and Vietnamese civilians lost their lives.[6] The French reacted by storming Hanoi the following day, forcing the Vietnamese government to take refuge outside of the city.[43] Ho Chi Minh himself was forced to flee Hanoi for a more remote mountainous area.[2] The attack can be characterized as a preemptive strike against the French after the overtaking of Haiphong endangered Vietnamese claims to Hanoi and all of Vietnam. The uprising in Hanoi escalated the aggression between the French and Viet Minh into the First Indochina War.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Stein Tonnesson: Vietnam 1946: How the War Began Berkeley, 2010, p. 122–125
- ^ a b c Cirillo, Roger (2015). The Shape of Battles to Come. Louisville: University Press of Kentucky. p. 187. ISBN 978-0813165752.
- ^ Young, Marilyn B., The Vietnam Wars 1945-1990, Harper Perennial, 1991, p.18.
- ^ Vaïse, Maurice (2000). L'Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946-1954): Adaptation ou inadaptation. p. 276.
- ^ "French Vietnam: A War of Illusions". Victorious Insurgencies: Four Rebellions That Shaped Our World. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. 69–140. Web.
- ^ a b c Devillers, Philippe, and Jean Lacouture. End of a War: Indochina, 1954. London: Pall Mall Press, 1969.
- ^ "Haiphong, Shelling of". Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Credo Reference. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.
- ^ Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 30–34.
- ^ a b Cooper, Nicola (2001). France in Indochina – Colonial Encounters. New York: Oxford International Publishers. p. 179. ISBN 1859734812.
- ^ Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 148–150.
- ^ Devillers, Phillipe; Lacouture, Jean (1969). End of a War, Indochina, 1954. London: Pall Mall Pres. pp. 8–9.
- ^ Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 153
- ^ Roger Levy, L'Indochine et Ses Traites, 1946. Paris: Centre D'Études de Politiques Étrangère, 1947, pp. 46–48, citing Notes Documentaires et Études, No. 548.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 68. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 233. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 71. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ a b c d Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 182.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 72. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ a b c Lockhart, Bruce McFarland, and William J. Duiker. Historical Dictionary of Vietnam. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2006. Print.
- ^ Sagar, D. J. (1991). Major Political Events in Indo-China 1945–1990. New York: Facts on File. pp. 4–8.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 79. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ a b "The Haiphong incident". World History. 2015.
- ^ Quoted in Institut franco-suisse d'Études coloniales, France et Viet-Nam, p. 42
- ^ a b c Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 183.
- ^ a b c Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 185.
- ^ (in French) Maurice Vaïsse, L'Armée française dans la guerre d'Indochine (1946-1954) : Adaptation ou inadaptation, 2000, p. 276
- ^ Bombardement de haiphong
- ^ La Terre du Dragon, tome 1
- ^ Hooper, Edwin Bickford; Allard, Dean C.; Fitzgerald, Oscar P.; Marolda, Edward J. (1977). The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict: The setting of the stage to 1959 (1st ed.). Naval History Division. p. 120. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ a b c "Haiphong, Shelling of". Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Ed. Spencer C. Tucker. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Credo Reference. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.
- ^ Georgette Elgey, Histoire de la IVe République : la République des illusions (1945-1951), Fayard, 2014.
- ^ Political Science Department, University of Arkansas. "French Indochina/Vietnam (1941-1954)".
- ^ a b Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 184.
- ^ Le Monde, December 10, 1946
- ^ a b Modelski, George. "The Viet Minh Complex". Communism and Revolution: The Strategic Uses of Political Violence. Ed. Cyril E. Black and Thomas P. Thornton. Princeton University Press, 1964. 185–214. Web.
- ^ a b Hammer, Ellen (1954). The Struggle for Indochina. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 187.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ Dalloz, Jacques; Bacon, Josephine (1990). The War in Indo-China 1945–1954. Dublin: Barnes and Noble Ltd. p. 81. ISBN 0-7171-1723-5.
- ^ Duiker, William J. The American Historical Review 94.4 (1989): 1156–1157. Web
- ^ Smith, R. B. "Towards a History of Vietnam, 1941–75". Modern Asian Studies 16.2 (1982): 311–333. Web
- ^ Zhai, Qiang. Contemporary Southeast Asia 32.2 (2010): 305–306. Web
- ^ Devillers, Phillipe; Lacouture, Jean (1969). End of a War, Indochina, 1954. London: Pall Mall Pres. p. 10.
See also
[edit]- War crimes in the First Indochina War
- Conflicts in 1946
- Tonkin (French protectorate)
- History of Haiphong
- Invasions of Vietnam
- 1946 in Vietnam
- Vietnamese independence movement
- French war crimes in Vietnam
- Massacres committed by France
- Resistance to the French colonial empire
- History of the French Navy
- Naval bombing operations and battles
- November 1946 events in Asia
- Massacres in Vietnam
- 20th-century mass murder in Vietnam
- Massacres in 1946